[meteorite-list] Commercialization, meteorite coins and other ridiculous wastes of time

From: Jake Baker <bakers5acres_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2007 18:29:10 -0700
Message-ID: <000001c773fd$26709120$01fea8c0_at_barb2>

I've read the messages about this subject bantered about.

 

First I have a problem with 'scientific' repositories and museums. I like to
be able to look closely at what I choose and not what some academic wants to
spoon feed me. My mind can process more than a few 'selected' pieces on
certain subjects. If you ask to see a particular piece or subject the stock
answer is 'you'll have to make an appointment' or 'that is scheduled for
March two years from now'. I may never get back to see it. In a lot of cases
I helped fund it with taxes. It isn't right that a few employees and
scientists are the only people 'allowed' to see, touch and experience these
wonders of our world. Yes institutes rescue and preserve items but for what?
So the articles can sit in a drawer, box or bottle for years and the
building finally burns down and nothing is left? It's selfish and self
serving.

 

I like the way that museums used to be. Everything they had was on display.
I grew up in Iowa and as a child in the 1960s spent days in the Iowa State
Capitol Museum looking at everything from civil war relics, stuffed animals,
American Indian garments of the 17-1800s to Dr. Bean's one of a kind fossil
plates. Dr. Bean was a dentist who spent years extracting crinoid (sp)
colonies from limestone parent material. His works have a world wide
reputation. When we went to Iowa on vacation in 1999 I wanted to show my
husband Dr Bean's fossils but the answer was 'that's not available . . . .
". I was truly disappointed there wasn't a single fossil on display.

 

With the individual collector (or dealer) that doesn't happen. People are
proud of what they have found, traded for or purchased. Most are more than
willing to share their knowledge with adults and children. If you have seen
the wonder in a child's eyes when they look at crystals, meteorites, or even
common rocks you know what I mean. Many children and adults who are curious
will never make it to a museum or a big city. Many don't have the funds or
physical ability to get there. Many children have parents who just don't
care or are chemically addicted. If a small meteorite is purchased or given
to a rural grade school or an inner city school and ignites a passion in one
child and that child turns off the tv, violent video games or cell phone to
find a meteorite, rocks or get outside to learn about geology or nature -
that's success. That's what sharing and education is about. If we want a
better world - we have to cultivate the minds of children as one cultivates
a garden. They will eventually be taking care of us.

 

So - all of you who see this subject from the perspective of a large
metropolitan city dweller or a person of science who lives in an
intellectual vacuum try and look at the subject and world from another
perspective. Put your egos, opinions and bias aside and do what benefits the
most people. You all have experience, education and knowledge to share.
Leave the fertilizer in the garden.

 

 

Barb Baker

Show Low, Arizona

(50 miles from Holbrook)

   

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Received on Sat 31 Mar 2007 09:29:10 PM PDT